There are a variety of reasons you might want to keep a folder on your computer hidden or password protected. The idea that Time Machine is going to make so that basically anything you delete is recoverable, made me start thinking about the fact that not everything I download needs to be recoverable. I’m sure you can understand.

Maybe you’re downloading songs to make a special CD for that loved one’s birthday, or maybe you’re putting together a surprise scrapbook, and you don’t want them to get on your shared computer and discover the project before it’s finished….perhaps you’re working on a novel, and don’t want your spouse to see it until it’s done….whatever the reason, you might want an invisible and/or password protected folder.

That’s where Secret Folder 4.0 comes in. Now, I don’t normally give tips that require a purchase, but there isn’t a simply one click solution in OSX to hide or password protect folders. You can create disk images that are password protected, but that’s a tip for another day.

Secret Folder is extremely easy to use. You simply select the folder you want to make invisible (which you can do in the free version of the program), then you select “Make Folder Invisible”. Boom! Done.

If you want to password protect the folder, all you have to do is select “Require Password” – that features, however, will cost you $19.95

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As a note, this program just makes the folder name star with a ., which is standard unix for hidden. If you go to the terminal and type ls -a you can see all the hidden files. You can get to the hidden folder in the Finder by going to the directory it is in, then Go->Go to Folder then enter .foldername

Also, you probably should trust the password protection very much. While I cant test it because it requires registration to do it, it is likely (and programs in the past have done it this way) that the the protection is only enforced in the program, so you can still access the folder in the Finder or Terminal.

I use the DMG password protect method. I open it when I need it, eject it when I don’t. You can password protect a thumb drive by putting the DMG onto the thumbdrive. Now you can take it with you, but to only other Macs.

Any one know of a program for Windows that allows you to read password proctected DMG files?

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